Alex Sink is in: Dem will run for governor

TALLAHASSEE -- Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink jumped into the 2010 governor's race Wednesday, a day after Gov. Charlie Crist set off a cascade of political course corrections by announcing he would run for the U.S. Senate instead of re-election.Sink, 60, becomes the instant front-runner for her party's nomination, with more than $1.1 million already raised. Party activists, still stoked by Barack Obama's Florida victory, see her as their best chance to gain control of the Governor's Office for the first time in 12 years.

"In the short time I've been here in Tallahassee, I've gotten a chance to see how Tallahassee works and really had some amazing accomplishments," Sink said in an interview Wednesday."I think the state needs new and different leadership in these economic times."

Sink is the first of numerous politicians expected to shift gears thanks to Crist's move but likely will be the lone Democrat running for governor.

Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum is expected to announce his gubernatorial candidacy next week in Orlando, while Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson -- who's term-limited in his current office -- also wants to run.

As a result, 2010 will be the first year in more than a century with no incumbents seeking re-election to any Cabinet post, according to the Secretary of State's Office.

Sink, from the Tampa area, was the only Democrat elected to statewide office in 2006, running on her experience as Florida president of Bank of America and her "common sense" business record.

She had previously indicated she would seek a second term, declining to jump into the race to replace retiring Orlando Republican Mel Martinez in the U.S. Senate.

Republicans quickly laid out their case against Sink, attacking her background with Bank of America, one of the large banks that needed a federal bailout after massive losses caused by subprime-mortgage lending.

State Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer claimed that Sink "played a leading role in tanking Florida's economy" as a Bank of America executive and accused the bank of "predatory" lending.

During her career, Sink did oversee consolidations and job losses; for instance, she helped on a merger with Jacksonville-based Barnett Bank in 1997, which the company said at the time would lead to 6,000 layoffs. But she left in 2000, well before the escalation and later crash of the subprime-mortgage market.

Sink called Greer's comments "just more examples of how people in Tallahassee care more about attacking people than taking on the challenges we face."

"I retired from banking 10 years ago," she said.

Still, Republican political operatives say her financial experience could be a significant vulnerability that McCollum, her likely GOP challenger, can capitalize on.

"She ran Florida's largest bank, and there's never been an examination of how she ran that bank," said Brian Ballard, one of several prominent GOP fundraisers backing McCollum.

"I think it's fair, if you make that the centerpiece of your campaign," Ballard said. "The environment has changed from what it was [when Sink ran for CFO]."

But Sink has been raising money, and Democrats said voters would be much more likely to lay the blame for Florida's economic woes on the Republicans who have controlled Tallahassee for more than a decade.

"What's a liability for the GOP is we have an economic climate that's of their making," said political consultant Steve Schale, who managed Obama's Florida campaign. "I think it's kind of remarkable they would try to blame someone else for the mess they've put the economy in."

Adelaide A. "Alex" Sink was raised on a farm in Mount Airy, N.C., the town that inspired the iconic American hamlet of Mayberry in The Andy Griffith Show. She is a descendant of the famous conjoined "Siamese Twins," Chang and Eng Bunker, who died in 1874.

She earned a mathematics degree from Wake Forest University and lived with her first husband for three years in Africa, where she taught English. After divorcing and moving back, she launched a career with NationsBank that eventually would make her Florida's top banker.

Her husband, Bill McBride, won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2002, beating former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno. But McBride, a trial lawyer, was easily beaten by incumbent Gov. Jeb Bush. Sink has two children, both in college.

John Morgan, the Orlando trial lawyer who has already raised more than $40,000 for Sink, said she brings unique skill sets to the race, from her Southern accent to her moderate political streak.

"I don't know if she is a country girl, but she talks like a country girl, so she'll do well in North Florida," he said. "She'll win where Democrats normally win in South Florida, and she's from Tampa, so she'll do well along I-4."